SODELPA LEADERSHIPThis week SODELPA decides on its new Party LeaderNot surprisingly, the Fiji Sun is pushing Mr Rabuka as the front runner, mainly I think because they know if he is elected, it will almost certainly secure Fiji First’s 2nd term in government come 2018. But for me, a Rabuka led SODELPA will mean the end of my membership with the party, not because I dislike him, but because he represents everything that I am opposed to.The Leader we select this week is supposed to be the one who is going to lead our charge against Fiji First and help us win in 2018. Such a person I would have thought would already have a high and visible profile calling out the Kai-Bai government every time it acts outside the democratic framework and countering the relentless attacks against SODELPA, the party they aspire to lead.I have looked hard to find statements or sentiments from the aspiring candidates and while there are many examples from the 3 MP candidates, the same cannot be said for Mr Rabuka and Mr Jale.Mr Jale as far as I can see has a limited profile, Mr Rabuka on the other handhas a high profile, but not for the reasons he believes. The only 2 things he is reported to have said in recent times is, SODELPA should have a vision like Fiji First, and that ‘Frank Bainimarama’ had the right to change our current Fiji Flag? This of course is the opposite positionthat the SODELPA Youth under the direction of Ro Teimumu Kepa took on the flag issue and succeeded in getting it pushed back?First of all Mr Rabuka’s commitment to the party itself is a concern. This will be I believe his 3rd attempt to try and secure our party leadership but after each previous failed attempts, he has resigned? What does this say about his commitment to the party? Is it conditional on his being elected leader? Another problem Ihave with a Rabuka Leadership, is that his credentials mirror that of Dictator Frank’s in that their rise to Leadership was on the back of committing the capital crime of treason; they both refuse to take responsibility for their crimes, they both hide behind theirimmunity protection, while all ordinary citizens that they want to lead have no such protection, and while they enjoy this elitist and privileged position their co coup conspirator George Speight & co who committed the exact same capital crime as them, are allserving life for their 2000 effort.And what is worse, neither Mr Rabuka nor Mr Bainimarama think there’s anything wrong with this?The other misconception that his supporters have is that Mr Rabuka will bring to the party his huge support base? But there is no evidence of this. What I can confirm however, from ‘official’ records is that 24 years ago, and 5 years after his ‘Father of all Coups [1987], Mr Rabuka did win the General elections with his SVT Party with 154,656 votes and 36 seats formed the government and became Prime Minister. But over the following 14 years to 2006, his support base reduced through a party split and disillusion with the SVT and in 2006 they received just 238 votes. This is what the ‘official’ record of support for Mr Rabuka was 10 years ago. In contrast to this, just 20 months ago our current leader Ro Teimumu Kepa who is,in my view, the ‘most electable’ respected, admired and courageous leader we have,and a Paramount Chief of Fiji received 49,485 votes which is 35% of the total SODELPA votes in 2014. And we think we are going forward by replacing her with someone who 10 years ago could only secure 238 votes? I mean, seriously?Even Hon Tikoca’s supporters numbered 2,406, Hon Kiliraki has 2.413 and Hon Gavoka has 3,690, and although their numbers collectively are less than 18% of that which Ro Teimumu polled, they are each 10 to 15 times greater than the Fiji Sun’s presumptive new SODELPA leader Mr Rabuka.As for concerns some have raised about Hon Gavoka and his relationship to the Attorney General, from my own experience with the Hon member, I can say that it does not diminish his determination to do what is right.Winning elections is about increasing voter numbers. In 2014 we secured 139,857 votes and along with our Opposition partners and Independents, 41% of the voters voted against Fiji First and the difference between winning or losing the 2018 elections based on these results, is a shift of just 14% of Fiji First supporters to the Opposition. Consolidating our support from 2006 and working with our opposition partners to build that 41% to 55% is what will win the election for us. To the current SODELPA leadership, I say displacing the leader who polled the largest number of votes for the party and risking her supporter’s continued loyalty, after the disrespectful way Ro Teimumu has been treated by some in the executive, is an act of lunacy.Of course we can just hand the next elections on a plate to Fiji First, all we have to do is elect Mr Rabuka as our new leader and we will have helped created a scenario where the 2 candidates most likely to be our next Prime Minister are the very ones who destroyed our democracy. What does that say about our morals and integrity as a society? Sadly whatthe coup culture has given Fiji is a new military and social elitewhose rise in fame, fortune and status, have been achieved on the back of acts of treason, through favours, corruption and nepotism.Everyone born in 1987 will be 31 in 2018 and those born in 2000 will be become eligible to vote in 2018, so we have arrived at the time when the majority of our people will have never experienced real democracy,they have grown up under the shadows of coups, oppression and threats and although it’s been 29 years since the first coup that began all our problems, it’s never too late to start saying NO.Some coup leaders in other countries are finding out that, the ‘arm of the law is long’ so while the usurpers of our democracy and their aiders and abettorsmay well succeed for now in ‘delaying’ their day in court, ultimately that day will come. It’s not a matter of if, but when!Mick Beddoes

What is Mick Beddoes talking about? He supported the main man behind the 2000 coup, Laisenia Qarase. If it was not for Qarase, Frank Bainimarama would not have found the support to instruct the CRW to carry out the 2000 coup. Mick, being a politician in touch with the happenings, should have known this., If he knew, and we say he knew, and he still supported Qarase after the 2001 election, then he is a hypocrite. He should shut his trap and retire.

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Hmmm

22/6/2016 10:53:45 pm

Yes but despite all that some of his points are actually quite valid, don't be too quick to throw the man under a bus my friend.

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Mick Beddoes

23/6/2016 01:46:17 am

Hey builder, you sound like an idiot saying things that you know nothing about. You clearly have no idea of what you are talking about. Try thinking for yourself for a change and not stop 'barking' for your masters.

Take some time to read my statements after my first election to parliament in 2001 and you will understand why I say you are an idiot!

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Interesting Revelation

23/6/2016 11:09:33 pm

You mean Qarase was a member of Butadroka's Party or drafted its constitution and was aware of coup as he flew in Fiji Air or Sun Alliance?

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BulaBoy

24/6/2016 11:53:56 pm

Capital offence? What capital offence? The capital nature of treason has been done away by Mick's mate Qarase.

Toady Mick is losing memory faster than hair I think.

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POLICE COM ARREST THEM!

22/6/2016 07:23:09 pm

MICK Beddos and kEPA should be arrested now for going against the CONSTITUTION,which clearly gives immunity for everything these people are against.
This is unconstitutional if you OPPOSING anything in the IMMUNITY because it is part and parcel of the LAW,and the clauses are very clear as well for NOT any one to go against it.
Pol-com please act the ball is in your court,arrest and uphold the law.

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Mick Beddoes

23/6/2016 01:40:34 am

So you want the Police Commissioner who was part of the act of treason in 2006 to arrest me for expressing my view about a Rabuka leadership of SODELPA?

I can forgive ignorance, but stupidity cant I cannot cure.

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Ratu Sai

22/6/2016 07:54:30 pm

What Mick says makes a lot of sense and people should seriously think about it. If Fiji is to forward we need new leaders not tarnished ex coup perpetrators. The coup culture in Fiji has to change, and we may as well start now.

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Daniel

23/6/2016 01:09:41 am

The right place for Rabuka is in jail as Penaia had no authority to pardon Rabuka.

As far as support for Rabuka is concerned, it has come down to the lowest, lately not even a street dog would wag its tails for Rabuka.

Come on young members and Youth of SODELPA, kick this dog out,

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Shannon

23/6/2016 09:59:03 am

Such comments coming from a person such as Beddoes is a sheer case of the pot calling the kettle black. Both men have a habit of sitting on fences and jumping to a side which favours them and gives them a place in the spotlight

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Pyotr Velikiy

23/6/2016 12:32:44 pm

You couldn't be more accurate about Mick Bedfellow .
He along with Inoke Kubuabola and Sir Jim Ah Koy and Aiyaz Khaiyum all are political sluts ready for PM worship at every opportunity. Some years ago they were either Alliance,SVT or National Alliance party nowadays, they're staunch Fiji First.
Your days are numbered in single digit years ahead. A new horizon and a new beginning is underlay. 2018 shall be the year of political change. A free and happy Fiji is only 18 months away. The people of this nation will speak in 2018 and a lot of obtuse MP's will be unemployed or on prison,depending upon what the living document 1997 has to say about their current arrogance

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Sobo Mick

24/6/2016 09:17:36 pm

Oilei Beddoes you were with Bainimarama's Charter Committee just a while back. Gosh the hypocrisy of all these so called democracy fighters. Democracy my foot. You go wea u get your bread buttered from.

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Welcome Home

25/6/2016 06:00:14 pm

'Absolute and unconditional immunity' - these two words in themselves could not be clearer
('more clearer' as the vernacular has it) that ill has been done and must be exonerated somehow. Well, the Duty to Protect comes ahead
and is a higher binding principle now: in both international law and self-evidently in conscience.Let the deceased and violated since 1987 and God be our Witness!

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"...Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy... censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives." --Robert A. Heinlein, -If This Goes On